Hi all,

I'm new to the boards and have noticed a lot of people are at some of the larger, or better schools. I have applied to the 3 schools on the subject line. I decided pretty late this year that I wanted to go, so I missed the deadlines for USC, UCLA and NYU, plus my undergrad is in Computer Science, so I didn't get to dedicate 4 (or 2 serious) undergrad years to films for my portfolio.

I am wondering if anyone has applied or been accepted to any of these schools. I am worried my background and my GREs are going to be a problem, and I'm wondering what people have to say, and what their credentials were when they applied.

Hi, I got into FSU. My BA was in History and my portfolio pretty thin. Most schools are more interested in your potential than in your preexisting artistic achievement. I graduated from an ivy league school, but I don't really think this had much to do with me getting in. As far as GREs, I can't imagine those play much of a role in their decision making, as long as your scores aren't terrible.

I'm not part of any school. But I think that most schools care about your portfolio than your potential. It's hard to see how much potential a person has, so it's safer for them just to judge from your portfolio.

Well they judge your potential from the totality of your admissions materials... Personal essays, script ideas, past experiences, recommendations etc. They are trying to get a sense of you as a person, and what kind of perspective you would bring to an artistic endeavor. They will assume that if you already knew how to make great films, you wouldn't be going to school. For UCLA an artistic portfolio wasn't even allowed until after you were selected for an interview, and even then it was optional. I believe there are a few other schools that operate the same way.

I know how they judge your potential but I'm saying is that it's how much harder to evaluate than your portfolio.

If potential was so easy to judge, studios wouldn't have a terrible track record with movies that bomb or hit. And studios also prefer writers with better credientials.

And to be honest, I don't think many grad schools are really concerned with teaching students. They just want students to succeed, so it puts the school in good light.

I just recently got accepted to SFSU for me all I needed was a 2.0 or higher 60 transferable units and that was pretty much it. I know it's not like USC or UCLA but my theory is that it's not where you learn but what you do with what you learned. Hope this helps.

Josh0euh, are you going to the SFSU grad program or undergrad?

Airbum88, no offense but I find your statement about grad schools to be a gross generalization. My only point is that when it comes to most MFA film programs, your portfolio of prior work is less important than your written material. AFI is definitely an exception to this b/c they tend to want people with prior industry experience.

And yes, potential is difficult to judge and will sometimes lead to bad choices, but they try nonetheless.

It's a generalization, but it's not a gross generalization. I know that every school varies on how much emphasis they place on your grades and published work, but schools never trust their own abilities to judge a person's potential, no matter how much they try.

Not only do schools care about your published work, they also care about your grades. You really think they need to your grades to judge your potential? The published work, the grades...these are all safety guards to try to prevent them from making bad judgements about a student's potential.

To be honest, how many great directors out there are really good in school? Spielberg, Lucas, Tarantino, Kubrick all sucked in school. Ang Lee went to the film route after not being able to go to any university in Taiwan. Zemeckis almost couldn't go to USC because his grades were kinda low in school.

Well, I for one, am praying that grades do influence their decision, because short of PA'ing (getting coffee and such) on one movie of no significant distinction, and the stuff I submitted, my grades are the only thing I have to hinge my hopes too. LOL,

Good luck everybody

quote:

Hi, I got into FSU.

Ard23- Were you accepted to fsu for next fall? if so, when did you hear from them? the wait is getting to me, hehe...

No, this was a couple of years ago. I didn't end up going. I remember hearing from them before any other school, and it was by telephone. I think I interviewed in February and heard back in March, but I can't be completely sure of that.